After being taken to the cleaners by her embezzling bigamist husband, socially awkward academic Tru Stanhope finds herself with one remaining asset: a dive bar in the podunk town of Brazen Bay. Well, half a bar. The other half is owned by the infuriatingly hot Nash McKendrick. He doesn't want to sell, and he really doesn't want his once-silent business partner to have anything to do with his one true love: the pub.

Nash liked his solitary life just fine before highbrow and pretentious Tru brought trouble and her little yappy dog to darken his door. She may be an intellectual, but she knows nothing about the real world and shockingly less about men. He's pretty sure he can handle the mousy little scholar. All he had to do is to figure out what makes her tick. She's just a woman, after all. And women tend to fall all over themselves around him. He'll just lay on the charm and sweet talk her into doing what he wants and send her on her way to a life better suited for her so that he can get back to his.

But Tru has different ideas. She's tired of the sheltered life she's lived until now. She wants to experience real passion, a real career, and a real purpose in life. And she's decided Nash is going to help her with all three.

Author Confession: Welcome to Brazen Bay, a small town I crafted just to explore that feeling of "so wrong it's right". Nash could have any woman he wanted, so I deliberately gave him the one he doesn't want. Because, authors are evil, and I like trouble. I hope you enjoy the "opposites attract" trope as much as I love authoring it.